The Royce-Engel resolution against UNSC Resolution 2334 is picking up steam in Congress. Here's what it says:
- Expresses grave objection to United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 (2016);This is not a pro-Israel resolution. It supports a two-state solution and insists that the way to achieve that is with bilateral negotiations. It is entirely consistent with longstanding US policy.
- Calls for United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 to be repealed or fundamentally altered so that it is no longer one-sided and allows all final status issues toward a two-state solution to be resolved through direct bilateral negotiations between the parties;
- Rejects efforts by outside bodies, including the United Nations Security Council, to impose solutions from the outside that set back the cause of peace;
- Demands that the United States ensure that no action is taken at the Paris Conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict scheduled for January 15, 2017, that imposes an agreement or parameters on the parties;
- Notes that granting membership and statehood standing to the Palestinians at the United Nations, its specialized agencies, and other international institutions outside of the context of a bilateral peace agreement with Israel would cause severe harm to the peace process, and would likely trigger the implementation of penalties under sections 7036 and 7041(j) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016 (division K of Public Law 114–113);
- Rejects any efforts by the United Nations, United Nations agencies, United Nations member states, and other international organizations to use United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 to further isolate Israel through economic or other boycotts or any other measures, and urges the United States Government to take action where needed to counter any attempts to use United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 to further isolate Israel;
- Urges the current presidential administration and all future presidential administrations to uphold the practice of vetoing all United Nations Security Council resolutions that seek to insert the Council into the peace process, recognize unilateral Palestinian actions including declaration of a Palestinian state, or dictate terms and a timeline for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict;
- Reaffirms that it is the policy of the United States to continue to seek a sustainable, just, and secure two-state solution to resolve the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians; and
- Urges the incoming Administration to work with Congress to create conditions that facilitate the resumption of direct, bilateral negotiations without preconditions between Israelis and Palestinians with the goal of achieving a sustainable agreement that is acceptable to both sides
J-Street characterizes itself in the media as being strongly for a two state solution. Yet they are against Royce-Engel and they were for UNSC 2334 passing.
I received a "talking points" memo from J-Street instructing its people to fight Royce Engel. It includes this howler:
* The resolution's assertions that the UNSCR is "one-sided" and "anti-Israel" - and therefore violated relevant provisions of H.Con.Res165 - are also not supported by the fact that the UNSCR expressly condemned "all acts of violence against civilians, including acts of terror, as well as all acts of provocation, incitement and destruction" and called "upon both parties to act on the basis of international law, including international humanitarian law, and their previous agreements and obligations, to observe calm and restraint, and to refrain from provocative actions, incitement and inflammatory rhetoric."Even the section that they quoted that was supposedly proving that 2334 was not one-sided did not name Palestinians as the actors who are behind terrorism and incitement, while the 80% of the resolution that did attack a specific party attacked Israel. (The UN has never defined terrorism specifically because so many member states consider Palestinian attacks on civilians not to be terrorism, therefore this paragraph is meaningless in context of the UN.)
The proposed Congressional resolution supports a two state solution - and J-Street is against it.
J-Street supports UNSC 2334 - along with Hamas and the PLO - while the entire Israeli political spectrum outside the Arab parties and Meretz opposed it.
J-Street is not pro-peace and not pro-Israel. Anyone who claims that J-Street represents the mainstream of liberal Jewish thinking is knowingly lying.